21st Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Skanderbeg

The 21st Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Skanderbeg was a mountain infantry division of the German Wehrmacht that was active in 1944 during World War II. The division was of Muslim Albanian soldiers and German and Yugoslavian volksdeutsche officers, and the division was named for the Albanian lord Skanderbeg, who fought off invasions by the Ottoman Empire during the 15th century. The division never reached full divisional strength, having a top strength of 6,500 troops. In May 1944, the division took part in the deportation of 281 Kosovan Jews to Bergen-Belsen during the Holocaust, and it took part in a German anti-partisan offensive in Montenegro from June to July 1944, engaging in the rape, looting, and murder of innocent Serbs. The division was later overrun by the Yugoslav Partisans while guarding chromium mines in Kosovo, and it suffered from widespread desertion. On 1 November 1944, with fewer than 500 Albanians remaining in its ranks and depending on Kriegsmarine personnel to provide replacements, the division was disbanded and merged into the 7th SS Volunteer Mountain Division Prinz Eugen.